A variety of fire and explosion suppression suppressors are known. For example, conventional approaches employ pressurized storage containers with a suppressing agent contained therein, and that are fitted with discharge valves. However, improvements may be made in some systems that do not provide optimum safety measures for preventing the release of stored energy from the storage container, and namely by suitably blocking the discharge path from the discharge valve. These shortcomings can pose hazardous conditions for workers performing maintenance in protected vessels in the event of an inadvertent discharge. Furthermore, inadvertent discharges may occur during storage, maintenance or transport of the suppressor when not intended for use.
This may be of concern, since federal law requires that some devices provide a means to mechanically prevent the release of stored energy into an occupied area. Furthermore there is a need for users to be able to lock that device in place for the duration of the occupation. For example, explosion suppression systems may require safe entrance into an area of operation, such as protected vessels including but not limited to process vessels such as dust collectors, dryers, and cyclones. In certain applications, including but not limited to the aforementioned explosion suppression, a means for locking out suppressors is desirable for maintenance and transport conditions. For example, it may sometimes be necessary to mechanically lockout the system from inadvertent discharge during standby by blocking the discharge path.